Hello. I am new to this forum. I have taken up an interest in philosophy, and was wondering if anyone can suggest some books to start off with. I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thank you
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Welcome to the site, although we do have an introduction thread, it’s on the “Mundane Babble” Section, as for what to start with I think the best in philosophical classics is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. It is the most beautiful and perfect peace of philosophical literature in history. It’s age should prove it’s worth, being more than 2000 years old that is. here read this page, it has some info on Plato, then a cite passage from Plato’s “The Republic” where the famous Allegory of the Cave lies, oh and I hope you understand Socratic dialogue, it might be confusing at first, but you get the hang of it. Once your done, share your thoughts with us
Herer’s the link: historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html enjoy 
Welcome, enjoy your stay.
First of all I think you should refine your interest for the moment to what about philosophy interests you most. Plato’s Allegory is certainly a good read as Blindseer recommended.
What is an interest of yours? What have you previously read?
Start with the pre-Socratics and work forward.
This series of introductions is one I’ve found to be informative without being mind boggling and as such I recommend it as a bridge to taking on primary texts in all their glory…
You don’t have to do the same but what worked for me when I first started was a history of philosophy book. You can get them in all shapes and sizes and they cover the field of general philosophy as a whole in chronological order, as well as giving you the books each philosopher has written. This way you can see what part or parts of philosophy interest you and you can go from there.
Actually, Robinson writes on many different philosophes in an easy to read fashion. Good works.
True, I just highlighted that book for someone starting at the very beginning. Robinson wrote the Postmodern Encounters book on Nietzsche as well, if I remember correctly, which is an excellent little leaflet…
I agree with Murdoc.
First get a historical sense of what philosophy actually is… then famaliarized yourself with some key terms then start with the presocratics and work forwards.
Philosophy (like anything else) is in evolve and so you must ‘catch up’ so to speak, but the only way you can do that is to start again, from the beginning. A mental overhaul if you will.
It’s not that philosophers are smarter than anyone else, we just think radically, at least radically for today.
Welcome to the Forum! 
Your memory has served you well…
Indeed, Welcome to the forum (I forgot that bit the first time round…)
in reply to your post, i think the branch of philosophy that interests me the most is religious.
Hey there!
I would start off with Asian philosophy such as the Tao or Zen (a great book is called Zen Flesh Zen Bones).
The Asian philosophies are geared toward practice and so they avoid a lot of the fantastic crap and howdoweknowwhatweknowthatweknow stuff that some guy wrote a book about, that you find in the west. My favorite were books written about post modernism.
The eastern stuff is about living and that’s the most important issue.
Well, if you want a really accessible book to Philosophy try Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder. Nowhere near as high-brow as the other suggestions, but if you want a good starter, it’s the one.
I actually read it when I was 20 and extremely bored one Uni summer, having already read all other books in the house. Childish story, but made me interested enough in Philosophy to switch course.
amazon.com/gp/product/055334 … e&n=283155
The above is a good and fun intro to many philosophical concepts.
Wow, thanks so much for all the great feedback. You guys are great. Thanks for the heads up on the asian philosophy TheAdlerian. I am definetly going to look into it.
Certainly.
The eastern stuff is about living and that’s the most important issue.
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I like the way you think.
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Here is a link to the full text of the Tao Te Ching.
acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phal … te-v3.html
While I do not consider myself a Taoist, I think it has many many good ideas, and it truly changed my life.
I had a professor use Sophie’s World as required reading for an intro course. He was an adjunct at a community college, so I don’t know how qualified he was. The class was interesting, but I didn’t really get into the idea of reading a work of fiction as a text book. It did make philosophy fairly accessible for those students who weren’t actually interested in the class. Gaarder does a decent job of explaining various philosophies, but glosses over some things. It’s been a while since I took the class, so I’m a little fuzzy on the details.